GHYC alters clubhouse plan
DEVELOPMENTS
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
The Great Harbor Yacht Club will move the location of its clubhouse so that it can use a more movable Travelift to haul boats instead of a crane.

Great Harbor Yacht Club developer Blake Drexler said last week that the clubhouse will be sited back from the water and that its length will be shortened to make the distance between the east end of the building 50 to 60 feet from the edge of the east bulkhead. This will give the Travelift boat hauler/launcher enough room to operate on the south side of the club's wharf as was originally planned.

Great Harbor's original Planning Board filing called for moving the Travelift - a mobile boat hauler - from its current operating location on the north side of the Washington Street Ext. property to the south side. But then the town claimed ownership of a 1,440- foot thin wedge of land along the southern boundary of the club, rendering the proposed Travelift operating area useless. Great Harbor then began legal action to prove ownership of the land, a case that continues today, and proposed to use a 30-ton crane, along with a huge boat forklift, to shift boats in and out of the harbor.

"We own the triangle and we've always owned the triangle," declared Great Harbor Yacht Club developer Blake Drexler. "We need to resolve the issue to move forward, [but] for us the solution now is to readjust how the clubhouse sits on the property. So we pulled the clubhouse back, and that allows us to let the Travelift drive through. The net result is we're creating a bigger platform on the water side."

This new plan appears to represent an effort by Great Harbor to expedite the opening of the club's facilities. Drexler said that most of the club will be ready for the 2008 season and that the clubhouse should be completed by mid-March 2009.

"The entire club will be operational with the exception of the clubhouse building," said Drexler. "Our intention is to start construction on the clubhouse in early spring."

The boat maintenance barn and sports building across the street are constructed and weather-tight with interior work going on right now. Drexler added that all of the club's infrastructure, including drainage, utilities, parking and landscaping, will be completed by early spring this year. The club's out-of-town swim and tennis component at the former Nantucket Tennis & Swim Club at 23 Nobadeer Farm Road, will be running by the summer as well, Drexler said.

Outstanding issues include the club's Chapter 91 Waterways License from the Department of Environmental Protection, due out last April, and a ruling on a pending appeal by 10 commercial scallopers of the club's Conservation Commission order of conditions for its 40-slip docks-andpier

plan. I